	Week Beginning 12/06/2008

Lothian Disability Sport AGM.....

(Picture: Ken McGarrity, Jimmy Berry and Richard Vallis Receive their awards)

On Monday 9th June the Lothian Disability Sport (LDS) AGM and annual awards ceremony took place at Meadowbank Stadium. Various clubs in the area, award winners as well as family and friends, attended the event, which is becoming ever more popular. A Presentation by the LDS Chair, Helen Bruce, highlighted the work that has been carried out by the branch and the achievement of our athletes over the past year.

Some of the more prestigious success stories include several of our athletes being selected to demonstrate their talents on the world stage… Eleven athletes and three coaches represented Lothian at the SOGB World Games that took place in Shanghai, China in October last year. On top of that three Lothian athletes will be flying out to China again later this year with Beijing being the destination, for the 2008 Paralympics. Jim Anderson and Sean Fraser will be part of the GB swimming team and Mark Robertson will be part of the GB Cerebral Palsy football squad. For Sean and Mark this will be a debut appearance at the Games whilst Jim will be attending for an unbelievable 5th time!

Following the formal business of the AGM the annual awards ceremony took place, which acknowledges the achievements of many contributors to disability sport in the Lothian area.

Senior Sports Person Award

Claire Jeffray: After qualifying after a fine performance in Birmingham, Claire headed off to Pila Italy for the Special Olympic National Alpine Ski-ing Championships where she picked up three silver medals in the Slalom, Giant Slalom and Super giant Slalom. Never having raced on snow before and never having raced a Super Giant slalom, this was a superb achievement and it has been recognised as she has been selected for the GB team taking part in the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Idaho next year. More recently Claire won 2 gold medals at the West Midlands Ski-ing event in April.

Young Sports Person Award

Mark Robertson: Fairly new to the world of disability sport, 16-year-old Mark was spotted for his potential in football by his PE teacher and put forward for trials for the SFA Cerebral Palsy / Stroke acquired injuries National football squad. Mark was selected and competed for Scotland at the World Championships in Brazil. This was the first event that Scotland had played in and ended up being ranked sixth in the world. Mark was also awarded Young Player of the Tournament. His performances on the world stage didn’t go unnoticed and he was invited to attend trials for the Great Britain team to go to the Patralymics in Beijing 2008. Mark has since been selected and is likely to be a starting player. He is one of 4 Scottish based players in the squad.

Volunteer of the Year

Richard Vallis / Jimmy Berry: As was the quality of nominations the Volunteer of the year was so difficult to choose that we had to have a joint award. This duo run the archery group at Meadowmill Sports Centre every Wednesday morning for people with a disability. Various local community centres and individuals from around East Lothian attend the group on a regular basis. In addition both Jimmy and Richard promote archery around Lothian and visit schools, clubs and festivals to encourage its participation. There have also recently been 2 archery leaders courses meaning that there are at least 16 coaches qualified to lead archery in the area.

Endeavour Award

Fiona Hagenbuch: Fiona is a member of the No Limits Sports Club and has achieved a lot of success in boccia and bowls. More recently she has taking up athletics and will be concentrating on throwing events. At her first ever carpet bowls National Championships Fiona won all of her matches in qualifying but lost out in the final to the vastly experienced Eleanor Clark from Fife. However, if she keeps this standard up it will surely be a matter of time before she lifts this trophy. Not content with participating, Fiona is an active member of the clubs’ committee, giving back to the club what she has got out of it and proving a real inspiration to others.

Club of the Year

No Limits: This multi-sports club caters for people of all ages with a disability. It has been running for many years and has also branched out and now runs a separate swimming and boccia club as well. The success the club has had can be measured with several members competing at Lothian and National level in a variety of sports, most notably in swimming and boccia. If the sporting exploits of the club were not enough, the organised club ceilidhs, ten pin bowling competitions and outings to Badaguish and Keilder keep everyone entertained. Another notable quality that the club has is that it is completely volunteer lead.

Special Award

Ken McGarrity: Over the past 7 years Ken has been instrumental in raising funds for Lothian Disability Sport. As our fundraising manager he has raised in excess of £70 000 which is an incredible feat. The majority of this has come from the efforts in the Great Scottish Walk in which we have participated in for the last 3 years raising £18,000, £19,000 and £14,000 respectively. Regrettably, Ken decided to step down earlier this year to focus on new ventures, not least his growing string of racehorses! Lothian Disability Sport have recognised Ken’s achievements and presented him with a Quiach and thanked him for his services. He has left an incredible legacy and this can be seen with the employment of a full time Disability Sports Development Coordinator. Lothian Disability Sport would like to thank Ken for all his efforts over the years.